Yesterday I encountered a disconcerting factoid and I sincerely hope someone can convince me that it's a load of hooey. "The change in body composition that is brought on by chemotherapy is normally seen as part of the normal aging process," says this article, but "Unfortunately, in terms of body composition, a woman going through chemotherapy ages 10 years in the course of a year."
Let's do the math: my odds of being alive in five years are slightly better than 50/50, so I'm undergoing chemotherapy in hopes of beating the odds, but if I'm still alive and kicking five years from now, chemotherapy will make my body feel 10 years older than that, which means my body will be ready for retirement while I'm still working to pay off my medical bills. And if chemo adds five more years of life but then subtracts 10, what do I do with the resulting negative number?
Something is wrong here...but it's hard to see the flaws in the math when you're stuck inside the equation.
4 comments:
Oh, that's harsh. Sorry.
50/50 is only a statistic. For any given person, it's 100% one way or the other. So, let's be optimistic, and say that you're 100% leaves you feeling ten years older, but still feeling.
From the couple of friends I've had who had chemo, it seemed like there was a long, slow recovery, but after ten years, they were doing way better in terms of feeling and looking their age.
I hope we can return to this question in ten years to talk about how much better you feel.
About a year and a half ago, I took the “real age” survey and found out that my body thought it was in its mid-50s. Given that I have a number of relatives who have lived 90+ years and given that I only drink the occasional glass of wine and that I’ve never taken so much as a puff of a cigarette, I was shocked by this. Apparently, banking on heredity, refusing to exercise, mainlining sugar, getting an inadequate amount of rest, being in a stressful job and being in an unhappy relationship were not adding any years to my life.
I made a few changes and now I’m back in my mid-40s. Since I have been told that “40 is the new 20” (apparently we have Jennifer Anniston, Halle Berry, Valerie Bertinelli, Courtney Cox, Gwen Stefani and Cindy Crawford to thank for this) I’m actually back in my mid-20s. See how that works?
You get to subtract twenty years because People Magazine said you could. You get to subtract ten more for the weight you lost recently. You get to subtract several years for eating healthy food … several more for being in a good, long term marriage… more still for being a non-smoker…more for taking those long walks with Hopeful…..
In other words, you’re actually only about 14. Please make sure you’re home in time for curfew tonight!
Bets
Gee, if I'm actually 14, that would explain why my face keeps breaking out...
You're an English Professor. Math isn't supposed to make sense.
Post a Comment